When former Washington Post correspondent Elizabeth Becker testified as an expert witness this month at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia (ECCC), she described a surreal visit to Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge regime where “every move was controlled” and everything staged for foreign journalists' benefit.

Image caption:

American journalist Elizabeth Becker testifies as an expert witness in Case 002/02 at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia (Photo: ECCC/Nhet Sok Heng/Flickr/krtribunal)

Considered a leading expert on Cambodia, Becker was called to court because of her extensive research on the Khmer Rouge. Her widely quoted book ‘When the war was over’, first published in 1986, deals with Cambodia’s years of horror. She is also one of the few foreigners ever permitted to visit the Khmer Rouge-led Democratic Kampuchea and meet with regime leaders. “I’ve never been on a trip like that in my life, before or after, where every move was controlled,” Becker said during her testimony, which was widely covered in the Cambodian media.

Becker is the first historical expert to testify in Case 002/02, as the second trial against former head of state Khieu Samphan and the Khmer Rouge’s chief ideologist, Nuon Chea, is called. The two octogenarians are the most senior leaders still alive. After being sentenced in August to life in prison for crimes against humanity, they now face trial for a second series of accusations, including genocide and forced marriages [IJT-168].

Related articles

One year ago on January 6, 2006, the 17 members of Morocco's Equity and Reconciliation Commission (IER) were closing up shop after submitting their final report to King Mohammed VI. The Moroccan truth commission had received a flood of compliments from the international community praising the recommendations in its report, especially those advocating legislative and constitutional reforms. One year later, however, the results have been rather mixed.

After having tried high-ranking officers, ministers, businessmen, priests, journalists, local officials and militiamen, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) is in uncharted waters. On September 11, the most famous rwandese troubadour of his generation will stand trial for genocide.

China is keeping a polite distance from international criminal justice. Beijing is hardly disinterested, but China does want to make sure that these new global mechanisms are not going to infringe upon its sovereignty by delving into particularly sensitive cases such as Tibet.

Over the last month, Burundi has hit the headlines as the president put himself forward to be elected for a controversial third term, resulting in street protests, thousands of refugees who fled instability and an attempted coup. Behind the issues of elections and constitutionalism are also those of justice following Burundi’s long-running civil war. The international community supported an intensive process of negotiation and the signing of the Arusha Accord in 2000. But in the decade and a half since, its provisions on justice have been debated though never fully implemented.

France's attitude towards international criminal justice is marked by ambiguity. Paris subscribes to a vision of the world in which international humanitarian law is considered a way to curb violence against civilian populations, but at the same time it is wary of an unchecked judicial system that could end up prosecuting French soldiers engaged in areas where it has old and deep-rooted interests.